More than 200 people descended on downtown Denver on Saturday to sound the alarm over cuts to the Postal Service, joining tens of thousands of others across the country to demand protection and funding for a centuries-old institution that has been thrust into the eye of a political hurricane less than three months before a presidential election.
Denver’s rally was one of more than from coast to coast, organized by MoveOn.org, the NAACP and national labor organizations. The actions came a day after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy a congressional committee that cost-cutting changes to the Postal Service would be delayed until after the election and the agency is “fully capable and committed to delivering the nation’s election mail securely and on time.”
But protesters in Denver — and congressional Democrats in Washington — say it’s not enough, and that DeJoy needs to restore the sorting machines and mailboxes that have been removed.
“This is a 245-year-old institution enshrined in the U.S. Constitution,” Josh Downey, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation and one of Saturday’s organizers, said. “It’s a disgrace this handpicked Trump crony is removing sorting machines. This has a drastic impact on our communities.”
Saturday’s rally outside a post office near City Park included former postal workers, elected officials and concerned citizens, who expressed worry that a pillar of American democracy was being destroyed for political reasons. People held signs reading, “mail delay, not OK,” and, “stand by your mail,” as they marched to a postal distribution center on Downing Street.
“DeJoy is the biggest threat we’ve seen in 30 years,” said John Alge, a retired mail handler. Clad in a blue T-shirt that read, “US mail, not for sale,” and a blue Democratic Party face mask, Alge said he came out to show solidarity with his postal brethren, as he worried how other states would handle their election mail.
Colorado is one of five states to employ a mail-in ballot system — which experts and elected officials from both parties have called the for voting. President Donald Trump has railed against voting by mail, insisting without evidence or proof that it is linked to voter fraud. Experts, and , have shown voter fraud to be virtually nonexistent in U.S. elections — between 0.0003% and 0.0025%, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Paul Lopez, Denver’s clerk and recorder, told the crowd Saturday that Coloradans have ample ways to vote, including handing ballots to mail carriers, dropping them off at dozens of locations or sending them back in the mail.
“There is no excuse not to exercise your right to vote!” he said, adding that Denver is prepared for “any scenario” on Election Day.
For Kathryn Skulley, the Postal Service is about more than just elections — it’s personal. She remembers the excitement of getting letters while away at college and makes sure to send physical mail to her children who now live away from home. Her husband still rushes to the mailbox at noon to see what they got that day, she said.
“I believe in our mail,” said Skulley, a member of the Westminster City Council. “Our mail system works; it’s reliable. It gets us what we need.”
That includes the delivery of prescription medication to millions of people. Nearly said they received medications through the mail last week, according to an Aug. 18 Axios-Ipsos poll — a quarter of whom said they experienced delays or lack of delivery.
“People are fired up about this issue,” Downey said. “People care about our veterans. People care about our medicine, and they’re fighting back.”
Colorado this week joined a host of other states in a federal lawsuit alleging the cuts to the Postal Service “threaten to undermine our state’s independent authority to conduct elections,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said.
Jena Griswold is Colorado’s secretary of state, the person in charge of the state’s elections. She called Trump’s efforts to withhold millions of dollars of emergency funding for the Postal Service voter suppression.
Under pressure from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, DeJoy to the Postal Service on Tuesday — which included reducing mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes, as well as rolling back overtime pay.
But speaking Friday before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, DeJoy said he had no intention of reversing the that lawmakers have raised concerns about.
Trump said Saturday that USPS doesn’t need additional money and urged Congress to vote against a bill that would send $25 billion to the Postal Service and prohibit it from making major reforms.
“This is all another HOAX by the Democrats to give 25 Billion unneeded dollars for political purposes, without talking about the Universal Mail-In Ballot Scam that they are trying to pull off in violation of everything that our Country stands for,” the president as the U.S. House voted.
A short time later, the House passed the bill by a vote of 257-150. The four Democrats from Colorado voted in favor and the state’s three Republican congressmen voted against.
“Today’s vote to bail out the solvent and operational Postal Service is another made-for-TV conspiracy crafted by the Left to meddle in the election and scare the American people,” said Rep. Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican and chair of the Colorado Republican Party, on social media before the vote.
Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, said during a speech on the House floor that allegations Democrats have manufactured a crisis are false. He suggested Republicans tell that to a Loveland small business owner he knows who can’t get packages to her customers on time or a constituent of his in Boulder who waits two weeks for her prescription drugs to arrive.
“This is not a manufactured crisis,” he said. “There is a real crisis at the Postal Service under this postmaster general and we here in the House strive to fix it.”
The bill now faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Senate and a likely veto by Trump, if it reaches his desk.
